Hosting a hackathon has become very trendy in professional and collegiate sports. And now the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos are following suit. The Broncos and two Denver-based technology companies, SendGrid and FullContact, just announced they will host their first Tackle STEM Colorado All-Stars Hackathon, in November.
The Denver area is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. It is also a budding tech hub. So it is no surprise the Broncos are tapping into its resources.
The Broncos’ hackathon is open to Colorado college students hoping to earn a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. All of the details are yet to be released, but for now the Tackle STEM Hackathon seems to be different than many other hackathon events. It is a brief weekend event – Nov. 18-20 at Sports Authority Field – but aside from that, it is far more open ended.
We are excited to be tackling STEM with @SendGrid and the World Champion Denver @Broncos! https://t.co/3Z3ss7K9Dg
— FullContact (@FullContact) September 28, 2016
Most hackathons provide contestants with a specific task, or at least a rough outline for what they are supposed to create. And most often the hope is it will serve a purpose for the host.
Participating student teams will work on “feasible ideas” during the Broncos’ hackathon. They will also have the chance to mingle with industry professionals from different fields of study. The event stresses the opportunity to develop better teamwork skills and expand professional networks.
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Each team will present their creations to a panel of judges. The 36-hour weekend event will feature some surprise guests – but there is little doubt some Broncos will be in attendance since the event is during their bye week. The winners will receive a range of yet-to-be-announced prizes.
The Broncos’ sponsored hackathon will be a fun learning and networking experience for Colorado college students. And not many people ever get the opportunity to stay in an NFL stadium for an entire weekend. But, with such non-specific parameters, it seems unlikely it will provide the team or their partnering tech companies anything tangible. While at the same time, the NBA and MLB got specific.
The MLB sponsored Bases Coded event has a relativity simple goal: design a new consumer-facing baseball-themed app. And the NBA just hosted an analytics-based hackathon, last weekend.